New Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program is here, and not bad at all

One of the best things to happen to Star Alliance airlines was the status match they offer to their Gold Elite level, which was first revealed on this blog. While I still haven’t made it to their CIP lounge in Istanbul, I hear often it is one of the best business class lounges out there.

Turkish Airlines had a dual redemption chart: one for redemption on Turkish Airlines metal and one on Star Alliance airlines. Last month, they revealed that the program was going to be revamped, and new program is going to be launched as of June 1, 2014. Just a short while back, they launched a new website dedicated to the new mileage program at www.new-milesandsmiles.com.

Here are some of the details of the new Miles & Smiles program:

Turkish Airlines: Earlier, you’d earn 100% to 150% of mileage flown as per your cabin of travel, now you get it as per ticketed cabin. The new mileage table is same for Turkish Airlines and all partners.

Old earning table

New Earning Table

New Redemption Table: Same redemption table for Star Alliance airline partners as well as Turkish Airlines. Some increase in prices, but decreases as well. No difference for high and low seasons. More availability of award tickets in saver buckets, what TK calls Capacity Controlled Award Tickets. one way tickets at 50% of roundtrip tickets. For instance, Turkey to North America business class tickets were available for 35000 miles + 141 USD one way. Now, they are available for 45000 miles, which isn’t exactly gutting the chart in my book.

Here is the old Award Chart and the New One. For instance, Central Asia to North America in Economy was 80K miles round trip, now it is 68K miles. In business class, it is now going to 105K as compared to the existing 100K existing, so no big difference. And one-way it will be only 2500 miles difference.

Companion Awards now cheaper: Earlier, a revenue passenger could issue a companion award with 100% of saver availability, now the companion awards will be only 70% of saver availability.

Upgrades on all classes: Earlier, there was a differential award chart for upgrades basis the class of booking, and now all upgrades are going to be processed at 50% of saver award value on the same route.

That is the crux of the new Miles & Smiles program. Still a very attractive program, and they are currently offering miles for sale at 1.8 US Cents per mile under a 50% bonus offer.

More analysis coming soon, and this is the preferred program for Star Alliance miles for me.

I had a question on Miles and Smiles with regards to Star Alliance award tickets.

If I want to fly within North America, using Miles and Smiles Miles on e.g. United, what is the cost of a one-way flight award? Is it 10k or 15k in Economy?

I’m currently trying to fly from NYC to one of the Caribbean Islands and then back to houston, but not sure how much this would cost me with TK. I understand that with LH miles, this would cost me 17.5k one way, so 35k for the entire trip in eco.

TK miles and smiles member. I will be flying Lufthansa 1st class Frankfurt to Johannesburg next month. Wanted to know If I will be earning additional status miles as it is 1st class not business. Cannot find this info anywhere

Ajay, there’s two points you’ve seem to have missed about the new earning table on http://www.new-milesandsmiles.com, which are:
1. It only applies to earning on TK flights even though the old partner pages on turkishairlines.com says to look on the new site. The lack of First class rates on LH/OZ/UA/JP/SQ/TG/etc are are a glaring omission from that table if it did cover all *A airlines.
2. The old earn rates in TK Business class for TK Elite/Elite+ was 200% (or “double miles” as referenced on turkishairlines.com), so this is a devaluation down to 160% to 175%.

Also, the spending table sees substantial devaluations across the board, with a few new gems that are a result of the region changes (notably Hawaii).

I’ve been Elite (Gold) on TK for a long time, and there are two points that are really advantages. One is that not only does Elite only require 40k miles in a year for two year validity, but those (like me) living outside of Turkey can renew for only 25k miles for two years (provided the 25k miles are accrued in the first year of the two-year period). Last fall, I took a trip to Thailand with a quick stop in Sweden to see two of my kids, and got the entire 25k for a 2,000 dollar ticket. TK is generous with 100% accrual even for discounted fares on their own flights. Secondly, I waltz into United lounges just by showing my TK card, ahead of United elites who can’t get in unless they pay membership. As to service….air staff is great, but ground staff and telephone staff leave something to be desired.

I’ve tried to sign up for Miles/Smiles but can never enter a City since I don’t live in one that is listed. In the past they had “Other,” allowing you to enter it in but that never worked either. Looks like a good program though.

Levy, me too. Thanks for reporting this and I am excited about the full details. I have been looking for an alternative program to bank my *A miles, TK might be the right one! If you could give us the full details (redemption, fees etc) that would be great. I am gonna follow you!

I really likeTurkish. I’ve not used their mileage program but booked through UA before the price hike on Star Partners. How much are the additional charges on Turk award tickets? I am looking for alternatives to UA mileage program.